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Thursday, October 4, 2012

Picture Time

I'm working on a newsletter right now, so I'm saving some pictures for that, but I have many to share. Below I've captured a couple shots from heritage day, a couple from the Credo Mutwa Cultural Village at the base of Oppenheimer Tower, and one of the gym I box at during weeknights. The days are getting warmer and sunnier heading into summer, which I enjoy. I just have to make sure to grab the sunscreen since I know about skin cancer stats from Texas 4000 and the sun seems exceptionally intense here. Enjoy!

This is me hanging out with a few people from Reach Out South Africa, the group I was at heritage day with. My mentor, Evelyn, invited me along to a march and performances put on by her church. On the left is a traditional Sotho outfit, in the middle is Mpho, and on the right is a Tswana outfit (I think). Far right is goofy ole my with my awesome free flag. So far I have failed at getting it to stick to the wall with duct tape. More drastic measures are needed. And I was interviewed by the guy holding the mic beam since I was the only white dude in attendance.

These are some traditional Zulu dancers. Amazing athleticism, incredible power, and very entertaining. I have a video, but it's a bit too big to share, I think this photo captures it pretty well as they are about to slam their feet down to the quick beat of a bass drum.

This is Coach on the left and Buhle on the right. Buhle just won his fight in Joburg last weekend and is a rising 18 year old boxer. Sessions in the ring with Coach are always exhausting. As you can see the facilities are quite nice, and amazingly I get to train for free. We always pray after working hard together and I really enjoy the community at the gym (even when the workouts are brutal).

On the left is Mother Earth. In her lap sit two boys fighting over penis size as an example of the triviality many human arguments. Just below them, a young girl prays for peace. In the middle is the Father Creator with four faces, one for each cardinal direction (or races of the earth, I was unclear from the explanation). To his right, the bird-man is their son. I'm pretty sure this comes from African tradition, but it could just be Credo Mutwa's artistic interpretation (he's a shaman). Either way I think it's interesting how it parallels the Trinity.

I will forever be captured by the way light shines through leaves. One of my favorite pictures I took in El Salvador was a similar view. As you can see, this heritage site is a nice little oasis in the middle of the city.